Wild Boar Audio Frequently Asked Questions

Wild Boar Audio Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Wild Boar Audio need the radio reflashed but Hogtunes doesn’t?

Are Wild Boar Audio systems expandable?

Why shouldn’t I put car stereo speakers in my bike?

Why not use car amplifiers in my bike?

Why do you offer front and lid speakers but no amp to power them all?

Tab 1

Since 2006, factory audio systems are 2 Ohm design (except some CVO® models). All Hogtunes products are also 2 ohm so customers can start with a basic speaker swap without adding an amp, and build the system in stages as they see fit. Wild Boar Audio uses a 4 ohm design so an amplifier must always be present. 2 ohm designs consume much more current, so as a means to not exceed the charging capabilities of your bike, Hogtunes amps are made to make less overall power (draw less current). 4 ohm designs like Wild Boar allow us to significantly step up the power output of the amp and still not damage your bikes electrical system. Hogtunes has always been meant to be a very good value for the money as far as performance and sound. Wild Boar Audio is our higher performance brand and let us “go for it”!

Tab 2

From the factory, beyond the bass and treble controls you have access to on your radios screen, the factory has a “behind the scenes” equalizer to tailor the sound for the stock systems. On Street Glides® and Road Glides®, the factory flash as a VERY high amount of bass added to try and make the factory system “appealing”. Any amplifier takes the signal it sees from the radio and makes it louder. If the high level of bass from the factory flash went into a high power amp, the poor speakers would sound like a running shoe in a dryer and be subject to fail. The “4 speaker no amp” flash we suggest has less added bass, and makes it so the speakers can take all the power, and still sound very good. Basically Wild Boar Audio requires the flash because of the high power of our amplifiers. Hogtunes does NOT need the flash as the power levels are lower.

Tab 3

Absolutely! If you start with our WBASG (Street Glide®) Kit or WBARG (Road Glide®) Kit, you will be able to add on later with a plug and play solution. As a rule, no Wild Boar or Hogtunes system will ever “paint you into a corner” so you have no options!

Tab 4

One GIANT reason is that a car speaker is made to withstand the CLOSED environment of the inside of a car. This is SUBSTANTIALLY different that the extreme environment that speakers see on a bike. We cannot tell you how many people call us and tell us they are replacing car stereo speakers because they simply fell apart. When it comes to speaker lids, our lids are properly “mated” to any 6x9” we offer in the Hogtunes or Wild Boar brand to keep water out. Car speakers WILL allow water to pass through them, and far too many people find that out the hard way when jackets or electronics left in saddlebags get wet or ruined.
In 2014, HD went to speaker “cabinets” in the front fairings which is where the speakers live. Most car speakers are made to work in what we will call a “low compression” cabinet that’s big like a car door or a trunk. A typical car door has an internal volume of 1.5ft3 or 42.5 litres. As a car speaker plays in this large volume of air there is very little air pressure to affect the speaker. Speakers in doors etc move back and forth by the power of the amplifier and there is very little air pressure to restrict the movement of the speaker. In the 14+ bikes, the cabinet is very small…approx 0.106ft3 or 3 litres which a VERY “high compression” cabinet. As the speaker gets pushed out by the amplifier, the speaker is held back by the inherent “suction” in the small cabinet. Car speaker cones can literally start folding in on themselves because of the “high compression” cabinet. The serious rigidity of a real carbon fiber cone combats this and is a main reason Wild Boar speakers are made specifically for your bike!
Another reason is that car speakers have a hard time dealing with the heat caused inside the small cabinets. As the speaker is playing, it can heat up a lot. In the small cabinets, there is not a lot of area for the heat to get dissipated. Wild Boar speakers combat this with large magnets to deal with heat that weigh 2.2lbs (1kg) each! Lets talk about the factory cabinet. We can call it a speaker cabinet all we want, but if you look at the cabinet itself, you will see “strengthening ribs” going through out to make it as solid as possible. Think of the “cabinet” as the structure of your fairing that radically reduces wind buffeting some people complained about in previous model years of bikes. This “structure” just happens to hold a speaker! The sad fact is we have heard of other speaker vendors telling customers to drill holes in the back of the cabinets after a warranty failure occurs. This is to “open the cabinet up” so hot air can escape and the speakers chance of surviving goes up a lot. If you think of the cabinets as a structure first and a speaker cabinet second, drilling holes in a MAJOR STRUCTURE OF YOUR FAIRING may not seem that smart……Our solution was to design a speaker from the ground up to work in the exact location it was meant to live in!
Lastly, let’s talk about the sound. Car speakers are made for the comfortable and quiet inside of a car. The vast majority of car speakers today have extra bass and extra treble to make them “saleable” to their core 16-24 year old customers who tend to listen to dance music or rap. Its not that extra bass and treble have been added, its that the mid range has been “sucked out” so the bass and treble appear louder. In a car, this works, however, midrange is the most sensitive area of sound to humans. When we started Hogtunes in 2004, our speaker left the bass and treble alone but made the mid range play much louder as a means to “cut through” exhaust and wind noise on a bike at speed-something Hogtunes still does today. Wild Boar Audio understands that a lot of customers “expect” more bass, and with the extra power we have with the Wild Boar amplifiers, we deliver! We did this by making the suspension of the speaker work in the very small cabinet mentioned above. We did tone the mid range down for Wild Boar, but not so much that we don’t cut through exhaust and wind noise like a properly designed Motorcycle speaker should.

Tab 5

Amplifiers need current from your charging system to operate just like motors need gas from your tank to run. There are some very nice car audio amplifiers out there that “fit” in bikes, but keep in mind they were designed for a car first—a car with a much LARGER charging system (and battery) than your bike has! Hogtunes and Wild Boar have plenty of staff who engineered large car stereo amplifiers for many major brands, and It would be a SNAP (and fun) to offer a 1000 watt amp for a bike. The limiting factor IS the small charging system on a bike. Wild Boar Audio will not offer a single amplifier that could knowingly damage your bikes charging system! Please keep in mind the charging system on 14+ bikes is “rated” to produce 50 amps when the motor is above 3000 RPM. The bike needs about 15 amps to run, so assuming your charging system meets the factory spec, and the motor is at 3k, you have 35 amps “available” to power ALL your electrical accessories. If you have an amplifier that constantly exceeds the current capabilities of the charging system, the extra current needed comes from the “reserve tank” aka your battery. When the reserve tank is empty, that’s when things go wrong REAL fast and stators etc start failing. We know of one car stereo company that puts right in their manual a suggested minimum charging system capability of 75 amps to “properly” power that amp!
One thing we pride ourselves on is making our product so easy to install. Everything you need comes in the box, and everything is plug and play. If you find yourself reaching for wire cutters or a soldering iron, you are about to do something wrong! Many car amps will require you chop up the factory wiring to make their products work.

Tab 6

The sad fact is so many people running large car audio systems on their bikes are “learning the hard way” that car speakers WILL let water in their bags. Since car speakers are typically 4 ohms just like the Wild Boar 6x9, and since we had so many people asking for a 4 ohm 6x9” that would fix their water issues, we released the 6x9 to help people out. A large Wild Boar Audio amp to power 4 or more speakers is currently in the works.

How does Wild Boar Audio differ from Hogtunes?

Why does Wild Boar Audio need the radio reflashed but Hogtunes doesn’t?

Are Wild Boar Audio systems expandable?

Why shouldn’t I put car stereo speakers in my bike?

Why not use car amplifiers in my bike?

Why do you offer front and lid speakers but no amp to power them all?

Tab 1

Since 2006, factory audio systems are 2 Ohm design (except some CVO® models). All Hogtunes products are also 2 ohm so customers can start with a basic speaker swap without adding an amp, and build the system in stages as they see fit. Wild Boar Audio uses a 4 ohm design so an amplifier must always be present. 2 ohm designs consume much more current, so as a means to not exceed the charging capabilities of your bike, Hogtunes amps are made to make less overall power (draw less current). 4 ohm designs like Wild Boar allow us to significantly step up the power output of the amp and still not damage your bikes electrical system. Hogtunes has always been meant to be a very good value for the money as far as performance and sound. Wild Boar Audio is our higher performance brand and let us “go for it”!

Tab 2

From the factory, beyond the bass and treble controls you have access to on your radios screen, the factory has a “behind the scenes” equalizer to tailor the sound for the stock systems. On Street Glides® and Road Glides®, the factory flash as a VERY high amount of bass added to try and make the factory system “appealing”. Any amplifier takes the signal it sees from the radio and makes it louder. If the high level of bass from the factory flash went into a high power amp, the poor speakers would sound like a running shoe in a dryer and be subject to fail. The “4 speaker no amp” flash we suggest has less added bass, and makes it so the speakers can take all the power, and still sound very good. Basically Wild Boar Audio requires the flash because of the high power of our amplifiers. Hogtunes does NOT need the flash as the power levels are lower.

Tab 3

Absolutely! If you start with our WBASG (Street Glide®) Kit or WBARG (Road Glide®) Kit, you will be able to add on later with a plug and play solution. As a rule, no Wild Boar or Hogtunes system will ever “paint you into a corner” so you have no options!

Tab 4

One GIANT reason is that a car speaker is made to withstand the CLOSED environment of the inside of a car. This is SUBSTANTIALLY different that the extreme environment that speakers see on a bike. We cannot tell you how many people call us and tell us they are replacing car stereo speakers because they simply fell apart. When it comes to speaker lids, our lids are properly “mated” to any 6x9” we offer in the Hogtunes or Wild Boar brand to keep water out. Car speakers WILL allow water to pass through them, and far too many people find that out the hard way when jackets or electronics left in saddlebags get wet or ruined.
In 2014, HD went to speaker “cabinets” in the front fairings which is where the speakers live. Most car speakers are made to work in what we will call a “low compression” cabinet that’s big like a car door or a trunk. A typical car door has an internal volume of 1.5ft3 or 42.5 litres. As a car speaker plays in this large volume of air there is very little air pressure to affect the speaker. Speakers in doors etc move back and forth by the power of the amplifier and there is very little air pressure to restrict the movement of the speaker. In the 14+ bikes, the cabinet is very small…approx 0.106ft3 or 3 litres which a VERY “high compression” cabinet. As the speaker gets pushed out by the amplifier, the speaker is held back by the inherent “suction” in the small cabinet. Car speaker cones can literally start folding in on themselves because of the “high compression” cabinet. The serious rigidity of a real carbon fiber cone combats this and is a main reason Wild Boar speakers are made specifically for your bike!
Another reason is that car speakers have a hard time dealing with the heat caused inside the small cabinets. As the speaker is playing, it can heat up a lot. In the small cabinets, there is not a lot of area for the heat to get dissipated. Wild Boar speakers combat this with large magnets to deal with heat that weigh 2.2lbs (1kg) each! Lets talk about the factory cabinet. We can call it a speaker cabinet all we want, but if you look at the cabinet itself, you will see “strengthening ribs” going through out to make it as solid as possible. Think of the “cabinet” as the structure of your fairing that radically reduces wind buffeting some people complained about in previous model years of bikes. This “structure” just happens to hold a speaker! The sad fact is we have heard of other speaker vendors telling customers to drill holes in the back of the cabinets after a warranty failure occurs. This is to “open the cabinet up” so hot air can escape and the speakers chance of surviving goes up a lot. If you think of the cabinets as a structure first and a speaker cabinet second, drilling holes in a MAJOR STRUCTURE OF YOUR FAIRING may not seem that smart……Our solution was to design a speaker from the ground up to work in the exact location it was meant to live in!
Lastly, let’s talk about the sound. Car speakers are made for the comfortable and quiet inside of a car. The vast majority of car speakers today have extra bass and extra treble to make them “saleable” to their core 16-24 year old customers who tend to listen to dance music or rap. Its not that extra bass and treble have been added, its that the mid range has been “sucked out” so the bass and treble appear louder. In a car, this works, however, midrange is the most sensitive area of sound to humans. When we started Hogtunes in 2004, our speaker left the bass and treble alone but made the mid range play much louder as a means to “cut through” exhaust and wind noise on a bike at speed-something Hogtunes still does today. Wild Boar Audio understands that a lot of customers “expect” more bass, and with the extra power we have with the Wild Boar amplifiers, we deliver! We did this by making the suspension of the speaker work in the very small cabinet mentioned above. We did tone the mid range down for Wild Boar, but not so much that we don’t cut through exhaust and wind noise like a properly designed Motorcycle speaker should.

Tab 5

Amplifiers need current from your charging system to operate just like motors need gas from your tank to run. There are some very nice car audio amplifiers out there that “fit” in bikes, but keep in mind they were designed for a car first—a car with a much LARGER charging system (and battery) than your bike has! Hogtunes and Wild Boar have plenty of staff who engineered large car stereo amplifiers for many major brands, and It would be a SNAP (and fun) to offer a 1000 watt amp for a bike. The limiting factor IS the small charging system on a bike. Wild Boar Audio will not offer a single amplifier that could knowingly damage your bikes charging system! Please keep in mind the charging system on 14+ bikes is “rated” to produce 50 amps when the motor is above 3000 RPM. The bike needs about 15 amps to run, so assuming your charging system meets the factory spec, and the motor is at 3k, you have 35 amps “available” to power ALL your electrical accessories. If you have an amplifier that constantly exceeds the current capabilities of the charging system, the extra current needed comes from the “reserve tank” aka your battery. When the reserve tank is empty, that’s when things go wrong REAL fast and stators etc start failing. We know of one car stereo company that puts right in their manual a suggested minimum charging system capability of 75 amps to “properly” power that amp!
One thing we pride ourselves on is making our product so easy to install. Everything you need comes in the box, and everything is plug and play. If you find yourself reaching for wire cutters or a soldering iron, you are about to do something wrong! Many car amps will require you chop up the factory wiring to make their products work.

Tab 6

The sad fact is so many people running large car audio systems on their bikes are “learning the hard way” that car speakers WILL let water in their bags. Since car speakers are typically 4 ohms just like the Wild Boar 6x9, and since we had so many people asking for a 4 ohm 6x9” that would fix their water issues, we released the 6x9 to help people out. A large Wild Boar Audio amp to power 4 or more speakers is currently in the works.

Wild Boar Audio, Hogtunes Inc and Metrix Audio are wholly owned subsidiaries of PowerSports Audio Inc. Harley-Davidson, Electra Glide, Road Glide, Street Glide, Ultra Classic, Tri Glide CVO, Screamin Eagle and Tour-Pak are Trademarks and/or Registered Trademarks of Harley-Davidson Inc, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, and if used or implied are for reference only. There is no affilliation between Harley-Davidson Inc, and PowerSports Audio Inc. Any and all prices or specifications ae subject to change at any time without notice.2016-2017Privacy PolicyContact Us